Question

Blue Bell Is Accused of "Recall Creep" in Its Handling of Ice Cream Contamination In March, the listeria problem grew. Listeria was linked to a chocolate ice cream cup made in Oklahoma. The company recalled the ice cream cups In April, Blue Bell then suspended all operations in Oklahoma after the CDC linked the bacteria in the chocolate cup with five more listeria cases as far back as 2010. The company vowed to find the source of the C Blue Bell is the nation's third largest ice cream maker, behind Nestlé, which produces Edy's, and Unilever PLC, which makes Ben & Jerry's. Blue Bell started its business in Brenhaman, Texas, in 1911. It grew to hav- ing manufacturing operations in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, employing around 3,900 employees. The company's products have been sold in 23 states. Blue Bell faced a major listeria contamination prob- lem across all of its three major plants in 2015 The problem gained attention in 2015 when inspec- tors from South Carolina found Listeria monocyto- genes in two products that were made in Blue Bell's Brenham plant. The situation got worse once the Cen- ters for Disease Control (CDC) "matched the Blue Bell bug to listeria strains blamed for an unsolved 2014 outbreak at a Wichita hospital: Five patients, al- ready hospitalized with serious illnesses, had been in- fected; three died. Investigators later confirmed that four drank milkshakes with Blue Bell ice cream. Fur ther testing would link the company to 10 listeriosis cases dating back to 2010."190 Blue Bell learned about the South Carolina findings in February 2015. The company responded by retriev- ing 10 different products produced on the factory line in question. It made no statement to consumers. About one month later the company learned about the Wichita deaths. This led to a decision of stopping production on the tainted production line. Ultimately, the line was shut down permanently. contamination, and it announced a recall of seven more flavors. In April, another link was found between listeria in containers of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream that were produced in Brenham. This led CEO Paul Kruse to publicly apologize and recall all of its products-eight million gallons of ice cream. The company ended up laying off 37% of its 3,900 employ- ees while also furloughing 1,400 more. Employees interviewed by CBS contend that poor manufacturing practices problem. Two employees "described antiquated ma chinery run amuck, oil dripping into the food mix, and melted ice cream left pooling on the factory floor be- cause supervisors didn't want to slow production. Terry Schultz, an employee who worked on the con- potential causes of the were taminated line in Brenhan, told CBS "A lot of time, I walked in there, and there was just ice cream all over the floor. Sometimes these machines, they would just go haywire, and it would just, the product would just continually just drop right onto the floor." This was bad because moisture provides a good environment for bacteria to run through the conveyor belt, and it would grow

Read "Management in Action" "Blue Bell is Accused of 'Recall Creep' in Its Handling of Ice Cream Contamination" on pages 101 and 102 in your textbook.

Answer questions 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 at the end of the reading. Write out each question and the follow with your responses.

Answer 1

2.Blue bell’s internal stakeholders who were negatively affected by the contamination crisis are theowners and employees because owners and stockholders lost money and many employees werelaid off. No internal stakeholders were positively affected. It’s external stakeholders who were negatively affected are the customers, some who died, suppliers, distributors, South Carolina’s local communities, and financial institutions. Mass media might have been affected positively because crisis like these increases ratings, however, media’s portrait of Blue Bell was affected negatively.

3. political/legal forces influenced the manner in which Blue bell responded to this crisis because government agencies such as the Centers of Disease Controls (CDC) were involved in the crisis.

4.Blue Bell responded ethically to the contamination problem to the extent that they closed the line of production and recall the product before it could cause more harm to the consumer. Also,CEO Paul Kruse publicly apologized for the contamination crisis. Apologizing won’t solve the problem but it is a good step towards redemption, a step he backed up by recalling the product.

5.Blue Bell’s approach toward the contamination problem is consistent with the four approaches to deciding ethical dilemmas to the extent that they used the utilitarian approach by closing the line of production and recalling the product which caused loses for the company and many people to lose their jobs but it saved even more people from getting sick, and they used the moral right approach by doing what was right for the consumers instead of saving their money and not addressing the issue at all.

6.Blue Bell used ethical responsibility because they did what was expected from them by global stakeholders, if someone invest money on a company they don’t want that money to go towardslegal fees if the crisis keeps growing and the company ends up being sued, they also used legal responsibility because they did what was required for them to do by global stakeholders, they obeyed the law which protects consumers from highly contaminated products.